


The First Day of School

by boboton



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 04:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6141331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boboton/pseuds/boboton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta's father takes Peeta to school and remembers his past with Katniss's mother.</p><p>| & | & | & |</p><p>This is my first Hunger Games fan fiction. I had intended to centralize this work on Peeta's first impressions of Katniss and the beginning of him falling in love with her but it morphed into a story about Peeta's father instead. I hope you enjoy it, and please leave comments if you have anything to compliment or critique!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Day of School

Peeta couldn’t stop his knees from clacking together as he held his father’s hand while they approached the school line. If his mother were here, she would have slapped his bottom and told him how much of a coward he was and how he better behave or she’d make him pay for it when he got home. He suspected that was why his father worked so hard to persuade his mother to watch over the bakery while he took Peeta to school.

Peeta peeked up through his unruly blonde curls at all the rest of the children, desperately seeking a friendly face. His mother usually forced him to undergo painful and severe haircuts that would chop off his curls and keep his hair cropped close to his head because she claimed his longer hair made him look weak. However, Peeta was happy that his mother was too busy filling baking orders that she hadn’t had time to cut his hair before the first day of school. His fringe was coming in handy as it hid his eyes from onlookers, and provided a comforting presence as his fingers tangled in its depths.

It was still very early in the morning but many children were already lined up, waiting for the school doors to open and allow them inside. All the kids at the front of the line must have arrived extra early, perhaps because their parents had to get to work in the coalmines at dawn. Of course, Peeta’s whole family had to rise before dawn so that they could start baking before customers, who were on their way to work, arrived.

His father raised their clasped hands to point to someone near the front of the line. His father asked, “See that little girl?” Peeta followed the direction of his pointed finger, his eyes landing on a small girl in a ill-fitting red plaid dress with two long, dark braids dangling down her back. Her olive tanned face looked around haphazardly as if she suspected that any of the equally petite-statured creatures surrounding her might, at any minute, spontaneously morph themselves into terrifying monsters. Her brows were scrunched as if she were annoyed or angry but Peeta thought that perhaps she was really shy and scared but didn’t want to show that kind of weakness in front of these strangers. He understood that feeling because he always tried his best to hide any feeling of fear or anxiety from his mother, or else his punishment would be multiplied tenfold.

His father continued, “I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner.” Peeta tore his eyes away from the little girl to gaze up in surprise at his father’s face. His lips were tilted slightly up in a half-smile, but his eyes were soft with sadness. Though Peeta had never felt anything resembling love for his mother, it never occurred to him that perhaps his father felt the same way. Confused as to why anyone would have chosen to marry someone other than his father, seeing as how his father was the most wonderful person in the world, Peeta asked incredulously, “A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner when she could’ve had you?”

| & | & | & |

Baiston Mellark looked down into Peeta’s shining blue eyes and thanked the stars that, despite Peeta’s abusive treatment from his mother and the horrific world they lived in, he still remained an innocent and earnest child who always saw the best in people.

Baiston’s heart stuck in his throat as he reminisced once more about his short-lived romance with the now Mrs. Susanna Everdeen. He had been in love with her since he was seven years old, and she had accompanied her mother, the town seamstress, to the bakery for the first time. His father had handed Susanna a cookie and kindly patted her head while he hid behind his father’s apron. When she offered to share her cookie with him, he came out of hiding and accepted her offer. They instantly became best friends after that, and spent all of their free time together. 

When Susanna’s best friend, Maysilee Donner, was reaped and killed in the Second Quarter Quell, she turned to Baiston for comfort. After a few weeks of late nights wandering, barely speaking a word, hand-in-hand through the empty streets of the merchant side of town, Baiston finally worked up the courage to confess to Susanna his feelings for her. She began to cry and allowed him to kiss her, but he had never kissed anyone before and couldn’t decipher whether hers was a kiss from a friend or a lover.

This went on for a few months, with Susanna occasionally allowing Baiston’s tongue in her mouth, his hands on her body, and – only once – his trembling fingers on her breast. Baiston had never had this with anyone, and he dared to hope that perhaps when they were older Susanna would want a toasting with him.

However, these fantasies were crushed when she met Alder Everdeen when she had to make a special delivery to a family in the Seam. Though they could not afford to purchase clothing from Susanna’s mother, she knew that their daughter, Alder’s young sister, was dying of pneumonia and didn’t have any clothes warm enough to protect her against the unforgiving winter’s chill.

The next day, Susanna allowed Baiston to kiss her once and immediately informed him that she thought of him as a friend but nothing more. In shock, Baiston was not able to hide his mutilated heart. He swiped at his welling eyes and spewed harsh words at Susanna. He watched with glum satisfaction as her eyes became wet with sadness, but soon after hardened with anger. They never spoke again.

Susanna and Alder’s toasting took place six months later in Alder’s tiny family home in the Seam. Though Baiston was not invited, he watched the festivities as he hid himself behind neighboring houses. Tears gathered in his eyes as he gazed at Susanna’s beautiful dress that must have taken her mother many months to make. Her radiant smile caused those tears to spill over onto his cheeks. A year later, he married the first girl his mother suggested, the butcher’s daughter.

He once again became aware of where he was and answered Peeta’s question “Because when he sings…even the birds stop to listen.”

**Author's Note:**

> All characters and dialogue belong to Suzanne Collins. Some names and details about characters are mine.


End file.
